Word: moralizer
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...there are important differences in orientation between these strange bedfellows. Bennett wants to see students instructed in a small set of moral values centered around Judeo-Christian, Western traditions. He demands that Universities teach courses on Christian morality and impose strict codes of behavior which strongly discourage premarital sex, drugs and drinking. They dismiss current ethical instruction, which they characterize as games about "deciding which person to throw out of the lifeboat...
...other university presidents see things differently. They recognize that the nature of society and the independence of their students would not permit them to bring back the days of chapel services of strict dress codes even if they wanted to. No fair-minded college president wants to be a moral imperialist imposing his values on those less in lightened than he, Instead, mirroring the philosophy behind his undergraduate Core Curriculum, Bok wants to teach students how to think about ethical questions and problems rather than what to think...
...where does a student learn the values he will base his future actions on? Professor Stanley Hoffman once described that when he teaches a Core course he concentrates "on the building rather than scaffolding." Instruction that is obsessed with process will miss the more important "building" of actual moral values...
...argues that participation in community service programs will allow students to develop values emphasizing self-sacrifice and helping those less fortunate instead of the self-centered morality that prevails today. A latter day program of good works, if you will. But how do you ensure that a majority, not to mention all of Harvard's undergraduates, will enroll in community service programs? Many won't have the time and many won't have the interest. And if ethical instruction is as important as both Bennett and Bok bill it, how can the University allow a single undergraduate to miss...
Harvard educators must devise a means of teaching ethical thinking and fostering the development of moral values for all without erring too far on the side of Bennett's moral imperialism. This is a dilemma that has beset many a thousand in Professor Michael Sandel's course, "Justice," not to mention our nation's educators. For starters, the University should add another subdivision to the Core that examines the values, traditions, and development of Western civilization and thought. This would provide knowledge of a moral structure that has underpinned the society in which we have lived for several millenia...